"Whosoever will, may."

Mum, PahPea, family and friends!

 

Hello! What another WONDERFUL week! and who's baptized?? CHARLES IS!!!!!! It was such a wonderful day, yesterday, I would tell more about it but I'm assuming it's one of the questions, let me check....EYUP! sure is! haha Let's just jump in then, shall we? ok let's do it! :)

ahem.

no wait. I forgot to mention something....the Brown's had dinner with my family??!?!?!?!?? that is so crazy!!! haha So on Sunday, Brother Sylvester in the 2nd ward comes up to me and says "Sister De Groot, I need to show you something!!!" and it came out of absolutely nowhere so it was rather startling, I'll be honest. :) anyways, so he pulls out his ipad and shows me a picture of the Browns with Mom and Dad and Lia! haha and that's the same picture I saw when I got onto email this morning, crazy how some pictures get around so quickly!! haha That is so awesome, ask S Dyer. I was ooper excited to see that! eyup. sure was! :)

Ken and Sue Brown (from London, Ontario) came to visit.
OH, HAPPY DAY!!!  :0)

Our daughter, Keri, and her family arrived just as the
Brown's were getting ready to leave.  Lia insisted
on having her picture taken with the group, too!  :0)

ok. now we can do question time. for reals. :)

QUESTION TIME!!!!

1. How did you celebrate the 4th of July?

well, we started off the day singing America the Beautiful, of course and the rest of the day, well let's just say we were the most american looking women in Ontario! haha Me with a red skirt, white shirt, and navy blazer, and s Dyer with a blue and white cardigan, blue skirt, and red shirt. oh yeah!:) and a classic american lunch: HOT DOGS!!!:) what' the 4th of July without some dogs, eh?:) It was a great day, that's for sure! :) 

2.  Tell me all about Charles' baptism...

SOOOO great! oh my goodness, I couldn't have been more excited for him!!:) He was glowing the entire day, and brought SO many of his friends and family to the baptism, and we even taught a lesson with 2 of his friends afterwards! He is already such an incredible missionary and will do great things in this branch! Ah, such a FANTASTIC day!!!:)

3.  Yesterday (July 7th) was Grandpa DeGroot's 83rd Birthday.  Any message for him?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GPA DEE-GEE!!! ;) I hope you had the greatest birthday in the whole wide world!!! If I was in Niagara  I'd wave to you across the border and a bit further...:) I'll still wave from London but I don't think you'll be able to see it...:) anyways, happy birthday grandpa!!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!
4.  How are Agya and Nigel?

Well, Agya came to church yesterday and liked it a lot! We met with him afterwards and taught him about how Christ commands people to be baptized in a certain way in 3 Nephi 11 and he said "wow! that's exactly how Charles was baptized today!" haha EYUP! He wants to read the Book of Mormon more thoroughly before planning his own baptism so we'll update you on that later:) 
Nigel, we actually haven't been able to meet with since last week, we planned to meet tomorrow, though, so I'll let you know:)

5.  BEST TEACHING moment...

Teaching Charles the day before his baptism to make sure he was comfortable. His testimony is so beautiful. :)

6. BEST COMPANIONSHIP moment...

well I got a hold of a guitar last week from the sisters on Preparation day last week, and so I made up a song on the spot for S Dyer. Amber knows how monumental those moments are since she was my roommate once upon a time...:)
7 FUNNIEST moment...

about 5 seconds ago when we're emailing in the library and the same ringer for our phone goes off super loud and we both freak out trying to turn it off. turns out. it wasn't ours. nope it was the person across from us. ha silly De Dyer Duo....:) and yes. we named ourselves. pretty cute, eh? stop laughing...;)

8.  MOST EMBARRASSING moment...

I got hugged again. and I got really awkward. I'm ridiculous.

9. Biggest Ah-Ha" MOMENT...

I had such an incredible personal study this morning! It started off with reading in Helaman chapter 3. I got to verse 28 and felt so grateful that the "gate of heaven is open unto all, even to those who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God" and that it's not limited to a certain amount of people. And then in verse 29, I noticed something I've been thinking a lot about in the past couple weeks; "yea, we see that whosoever will may...." and it put a simple phrase to the concept of if we act, we will be able to go somewhere further than where we are now. I went on to Micah 2:7 and Jacob 2:8 that talk about how His words will do good to them that act upon them, and the word of God is the healing to the wounded soul. I thought of Elder Bednar's remarks in April Conference when he said "Guilt is to the spirit what pain is to the body", we need something to heal us, and unless we ask for help and then act upon the guidance that we receive, we cannot be healed, and we force ourselves to stay in the exact place of  puzzlement and heartache that we were previously in. All He asks of us is to simply act. Whether it's an investigator reluctant to read the Book of Mormon, a missionary hesitant to speak to that intimidating man on the bus, a member nervous to stand up for their own beliefs in front of a judging crowd, or a less active hitting the bottom of a bucket of questions, wondering 'where do I go from here?', all our Father asks of us is to act. Put one step in front of the other. Change something small. Make a little progress. But act. I once heard that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. It doesn't work that way. If we want something to change, then we need to change it. Then that poses the question 'in which direction should I change it?' The answer is simple, the direction which leads to eternal life with our Father in Heaven in bliss and happiness; the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I testify to Elder Holland when he testified that "one cannot come to full faith in these our times until he or she embraces the Divinity of the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ of whom it testifies". The Gospel is true, so we, as members of that Divine restored truth, have the responsibility to first let it change us, and then share it and let it change someone else. It works. every. time. The Bible and the Book of Mormon, together, are the fullness of the EVERLASTING Gospel, and oh, how grateful I am to have that knowledge in my life! If you have that knowledge, I invite you to share it. If you don't have that knowledge, I invite you to gain it for yourself. Stepping out of the norm of 'worldly happines' will not bring you embarrassment or shame, but I can testify to you that as you do so and step into the everlasting restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, you will become, over time, the person you're Heavenly Father meant for you to become! oh, how great is our calling to change and act!

I love you all for now and for EVER!

Sister De Groot:)

 

Missionary Invitation: end of question #9  :0) ...

and keep working on 21 day promise!:) Love you all!